Roman Rises! Five Things to Know About NASA's New Space Telescope

NASA's newest space telescope, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, has been successfully launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, setting up for a three-month cruise to Earth-sun L2. The telescope, weighing 9 tons, was launched on May 12, 2023, ahead of schedule and under budget. The mission, originally scheduled for 2027, has been completed early. The telescope is a spy satellite repurposed to scan the sky, with two mirrors originally intended for the National Reconnaissance Office's next-generation spy satellites. These mirrors were folded into the WFIRST mission, which was renamed in honor of former NASA chief astronomer Nancy Grace Roman. Roman's mission will focus on dark matter, dark energy, and Earthlike planets. The telescope's infrared imaging system will match Hubble's resolution and sensitivity but with a field of view more than 100 times wider. It will send 1.4 terabytes of science data back to Earth daily, the highest data rate for any NASA astrophysics mission. The telescope's active coronagraph is capable of detecting planets 100 million times fainter than their stars. It will be used to look for signs of life on exoplanets and will help resolve the Hubble tension. The telescope will be coordinated with other telescopes, including Hubble, the James Webb Space Telescope, and the Euclid space telescope. Its primary mission is due to run for five years, with a five-year extension already planned.

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